— every note louder than the last

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Riannon slept with four little babies at her side. If he was honest with himself he was amazed they had all made it, but they had her resilient blood and somehow his own brand too. He was lucky, he recalled, every hour of every day when he counted five still breathing bodies. Slipping away from the whelping den that they’d prepared was hard but he needed to stretch his legs and he needed to gather more supplies.

It was fortunate for them all that he’d been able to find anything in the spring warmth. Most of the world was awake again, but, it didn’t mean that in this new terrain he’d managed to find everything he tended to stockpile. Now, his mission was to try and find some more herbs to dull Riannons pain as best as he could.

Somehow he could tell she was worrying over herself - more injuries, so much trauma in the past year - but as long as he could keep her hip set right then he didn’t care about the rest of it. He couldn’t make her tail regrow but he could at least do his part to be sure that she wasn’t miserable every moment from there on. With a soft sigh he started to hunt down the herbs he wanted, quietly humming to himself to fill the itch to just return to his family immediately.

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The arrival of Riannon's pups heralded what felt as a new start for the wolves of Cloudrest. Though they experienced a tumultuous start, they were hale and healthy as could be; the sotaherra and her children, though weakened, would persist. Olive herself felt many maternal instincts elicited from her through the simple action of being so near a new mother and all those new mommy hormones; Olive found herself magnetized towards the puppies, so small and squeakingly pink, that it created a distinct awareness of this particular void in her own life, and in her own womb — and she often had to force herself to leave the bedside of her soul-sister @Riannon to give the new family space and peace of their own.

Motherhood, it was a primal bliss in life that Olive found herself distinctly lacking, and it was no more apparent than when affronted with a happy, procreating family and the ever-churning warmth of spring. The bees buzzed and nuzzled intimately into flower beds; the birds twittered overhead in their ritualized dances, and here Olive was, utterly besotted with it all — and, alas, the titan @Tiberius was nowhere to be found! The dove felt his absence keenly, and often spent long swathes of time pining away by the borders, wondering if this was the day she would espy his dark form materialize upon the Cloudrest borders. As time passed, her growing anxiety refused to abate. If everything was fine, he would have certainly returned to her side by now. Something was keeping her knight held up, and has no idea what.

Anyways, the new father, Eira, was oft kept busy tending to his flock, and she rarely had time to speak to him (as distracted as they both were in the months recent). He had some healing knowledge, she had come to know, and their main collaborations existed in fortifying the lives of his new family. Olive came upon the clouded bear, foraging amongst the newest of spring's buds. "Eira," she cooed, stepping forward. He was a veritable stranger to her, though they were tied together by threads as invisible as what bound her to the sotaherra. "How fares your brood?" she inquired, canting her head questioningly.

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— I have been WAITING for these two

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Eira was torn between chasing off the others and then allowing the Sotaherra to be given the reverence that she deserved. She needed to feel the approval and support of her claim, to know that she and her children were supported. Still, Eira let a scarce few come close - and when it came time for a visit from her eldest brood he took his leave to give them time and their own respect. Riannon trusted them, and Eira trusted her, and it did give him a chance to stretch his legs and let him go hunting for more herbs. The bear didn't startle when Olive spoke his name, his tail wagging as he turned to face her and pressed his face against her shoulder in comradery. “Sleeping, for now,” He said with a wide grin. It wasn't always that way - he wrangled the children back to their mother from time to time and tried to be sure to keep himself from even nudging Riannon out of turn so she didn't get hurt more.

“I worry about Riannon's hip, though.” He admitted more softly. He didn't want to speak too loudly; not wanting to undermine the facade she presented to her pack or how she chose to respond. “I was hoping to find some arnica, maybe find her something to help her sleep more solidly too.” He let out a soft sigh before he shook out his coat, casting a glance back towards where she and the children were still bedded down. “How are you doing, Olive? You look well.” It was a compliment; although Eira wasn't exactly good at weaving compliments up when it came to other people. She had bounced back given all she'd gone through, and her resilience was admirable to him.

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Riannon and her new, nuzzling family were in good hands; that much was true. There was no healing force greater than love, and Eira bore that for the Sotaherra and his progenies in apparent tonnage. There were many times the Olive felt superfluous, even as the expert midwife she was — perhaps with losing her role as seer, she had unintentionally lost respect as a healer, as well.

Eira wasn't asking her for her opinion, but still she nodded in approval. "I agree, she should rest while she can," she recommended in accordance with his own prescription. "all too-soon those puppies will be mobile," and she smiled, thinking of how absolutely lovely it would be to have Cloudrest flushed with new, vital life. She wanted this more than she wanted anything.

Olive heaved a forlorn sigh, perhaps a bit more exasperated than she intended. "Truthfully," she intoned with a knitted brow. "I am missing my other half." the sylph had vowed to always preach the truth of their relationship & hide it no longer; and that wouldn't stop in his absence. Surely, Eira didn't need more stresses placed on his shoulders, but she needed someone to commiserate with, someone who understood.

Olive cast a long, thousand-yard stare out at the horizon, feeling the hair and skin between her shoulders ripple. "It’s been weeks and he hasn’t returned…" the love-shorn woman expressed heartily. "I fear something might be wrong." All was suddenly too quiet in the Tundra — she no longer trusted the quiet. "I would go after him, if I wasn’t so needed here, and if I hadn’t promised him that I would stay where he could find me…" she laid her dilemma out for the bear, wondering if he might hold the answer that she was somewhat desperately seeking. He had seemingly come into Frostchant and solved all of Riannon's problems. Why not hers, too?

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In truth he didn't know her well enough - and certainly not as much as he would have liked, given how she and Riannon were soul-bound too. It was different, and Eira respected it but it did make him long for his sister in a way he hadn't realized. It was easy to focus on Riannon in her heat, and the chaos with Olive, and then just getting Cloudrest settled. Wholly though it didn't feel like that long had passed. The days, the weeks, the months, they all blurred together. He blinked and here they were, Riannon far worse after the birthing than Eira had thought possible but they had four little fuzzy babies to tend to.

He didn't know Tiberius at all. Not the type of man he was, or person, beyond his devotion to Olive and that was enough for Eira to vouch for him. It gave him hope, at least, that Olive would be well cared for. “But he will return.” Eira was confident in that. “If he gathered the whole of the mountains for you, what is a little time?” The bear could understand her worries, after all, if he was apart from Riannon for that long he'd worry over her too.

What Olive needed, however, was a solution that Eira couldn't give. He couldn't - wouldn't - leave Riannon's side, not with their new pups snuggled soundly at her breast still so tender and young. He didn't think that Olive herself could go for the reasons she'd already presented, and who among them could they truly send? “He knows to come here....but I imagine that there is just cause in his delay. Imagine how much sweeter reuniting will be.” He spoke kindly enough, knowing her struggle. He wasn't dismissing her real pain at all. “Do you think any of the others might scout the area? See if there has been a bit of his scent?” He wouldn't suggest a full trek across the mountains and tundra, but, a day trip just around their immediate vacinity might be helpful.

“If you needed it, maybe you and another? We can hold the fort for a couple days.” He wasn't exactly keen on that, though, but, he didn't want to deny Olive's needs either.


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Olive was immediately reminded at what a great match Eira was for Riannon, and how well their personalities meshed into a great structure of support. Where Riannon often felt distant and decisive, her ursine beau felt warm, familiar and concerned for her emotional and psychospiritual state. Olive easy recognized how both these personalities were needed when it came to leading a pack, or leading a family, and couldn't help but think that she and Tiberius balanced each other in a similar way.

She gained little assurance from Eira's words, but appreciated the sentiment behind it. Truthfully, it was nice to meet another who could envision positive outcomes, and be hopeful for things. Perhaps Olive had seen too much, or given up hope one too many times. The world was far more ruthless than she had given it credit for, and happy endings seemed few and far between.

Even though she bobbed her head in a distracted nod, her mouth words that clearly noted her continued worry. “You saw him, Eira… He’s prone to living recklessly,” she muttered, and from behind a cascade of lashes the woman cast her ivy-wrapped gaze from the unending, unchanging horizon to the earth that lay at her feet. “What if…” she said, “What if the walrus came back?” Olive glanced up, wondering if her knight had taken it upon himself to assure the safety of the tundra, for good. It would be so very much like him to go and do that.

Eira had many of the qualities that made up a light-worker, and he easily intuited what the anxious woman needed: an activity to channel her energy into that was productive and more, or less, was the means to an end. She bit the corner of her lip, and heaved a sigh. “Yes, I think I will do that…” Her mind thought to how she already had been doing this, and procured nothing. But she would do it again, and again, and again if she needed to....

Olive took yet another deep breath, rolling her shoulders and shaking her pelt to discharge the nervous energy that had built up within her. Then she stepped closer, her eyes large with appreciation for the man's Shiva-like role within Frostchant, which benefitted both his mewling pups and healing wife, but Olive herself and the entire pack as a whole. “The weather has been most strange…” she commented, wondering if he could help her make sense of yet another harrying questing.

“I must beseech the Gods for their protection,” she was unable not to add. “An aegis for us all,” If Eira didn't know why the stormcloud billowed, and the golden woman from the cliffs didn't know either, then the answer she sought could only lie with the Gods.

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